FTP/SFTP Client for a Seedbox on Linux: evoftp, lftp, FileZilla, rclone

The best FTP client for a seedbox on Linux is evoftp if you want a graphical app, and lftp if you live in a terminal. Both split a large file across several SSH connections at once, which is what matters on a long-distance link; FileZilla, rclone, sshfs and your file manager’s built-in sftp:// support all work too, but each moves one file over one connection. One note on the word “FTP”: your seedbox does serve plain FTP on port 21, but every client here talks SFTP over SSH on port 22, which is encrypted and is what we recommend.

evoftp is our own free, open-source (GPL-3.0) SFTP client. On Linux it ships as a single AppImage, connects from a connection file you download in the client area, and downloads every large file in segments by default. The full setup guide is evoftp: free SFTP client for your seedbox; this page compares it with the other Linux options.

What we judged the clients on

• Segmented downloads — does one file travel over several connections? At 150–300 ms, one SFTP stream rarely fills your line.
• Install effort on Linux — distro package, Flatpak, AppImage or “already there”.
• Resume after a dropped connection, and seedbox fit: SFTP on port 22, a ~/downloads tree of hundreds of gigabytes, the odd .torrent upload into ~/downloads/watch.

evoftp — the graphical pick

What it is: a dual-pane SFTP client (local left, seedbox right) built by EvoSeedbox. Version 0.2.0, free, GPL-3.0, Windows, macOS and Linux. SFTP by default, with FTPS and plain FTP since 0.2.0; no WebDAV.

Segmented? Yes, by default, for every file. Anything over 8 MB is split into pieces pulled over several SSH connections and written straight into place, with no merge step. Balanced = 4 segments, 3 files, 8 connections; Long distance = 8 segments with a 16 MB in-flight window. In our tests a client at 250–700 ms RTT went from about 2.4 MB/s per connection to line speed; a test result, not a promise.

Install on Linux: download evoftp-linux.AppImage from neo.myseedbox.site/share/evoftp/, then:

chmod +x evoftp-linux.AppImage
./evoftp-linux.AppImage

If it stops with dlopen(): error loading libfuse.so.2, install FUSE 2 (sudo apt install libfuse2; on Ubuntu 24.04 the package is libfuse2t64; Fedora: sudo dnf install fuse fuse-libs) or skip FUSE with ./evoftp-linux.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run. AppImages do not add themselves to the app menu; for a launcher entry, put a small .desktop file in ~/.local/share/applications/ with Exec= pointing at the AppImage.

Passwords: saved through your desktop keyring (GNOME Keyring or KWallet). With no keyring present, Electron falls back to a fixed built-in key, barely better than plain text, so on a bare window manager leave the password empty and type it at connect time. Settings: ~/.config/evoftp.

Caveats: unsigned builds, not in any distro repository; no sync or mirror mode, no speed limit, no remote edit, no CLI; uploads are single-stream.

Verdict: the GUI to use if most of what you do is pull finished downloads off the box.

lftp — the terminal pick

What it is: the classic command-line transfer client (GPL), in every distro’s repositories and already installed on your seedbox (4.9.2). It is where evoftp’s technique comes from.

Segmented? Yes. pget -n N fetches one file over N connections; mirror --parallel=N --use-pget-n=M pulls a folder N files at a time, each in M segments; -c continues an interrupted job. The manual warns that pget “loads the net and server heavily impacting other users”, so keep the numbers sane.

sudo apt install lftp            # or dnf / pacman
lftp sftp://USERNAME@HOSTNAME
pget -n 8 downloads/big.file
mirror --parallel=3 --use-pget-n=8 downloads/ ~/Downloads/seedbox/
mirror -c --parallel=3 --use-pget-n=8 downloads/ ~/Downloads/seedbox/   # resume

More examples are in how to transfer files from your seedbox.

Price/platforms: free; Linux and macOS, Windows through WSL.

Verdict: the fastest thing you can run in a terminal and the right choice for scripted pulls. No GUI.

FileZilla — the one everybody already knows

What it is: the free (GPL) FTP/FTPS/SFTP client. The FileZilla wiki’s installation page recommends “the package manager of your distribution” (it is in the default Ubuntu repositories); the project’s precompiled tarball comes with the warning that it “might not work on your system”, and Flathub carries a community package (org.filezillaproject.Filezilla, marked “Unverified” and not supported by the author).

sudo apt install filezilla
# or
flatpak install flathub org.filezillaproject.Filezilla

Segmented? No. FileZilla transfers up to 10 files at once (a hard maximum), but a single file always travels over a single connection; the developers have declined segmented transfers for years (“FileZilla doesn’t use segmented transfers”). Ten slots help with a folder of episodes and do nothing for one 40 GB remux.

Also: saved passwords are plain text unless you enable the master password (Edit → Settings → Interface → Passwords, since 3.26). The bundled offers are a Windows-installer matter; the distro package is just FileZilla. Speed limits, filters, directory comparison and remote edit are included.

Price/platforms: free; Windows, macOS, Linux. FileZilla Pro (paid) adds cloud protocols.

Verdict: fine for occasional pulls; the wrong tool for large files over distance.

rclone — copy, sync and mount

What it is: a command-line tool for moving data between local disk, SFTP servers and, by its own count, over 70 cloud storage products. It is installed on your seedbox (1.74.1) too, so it works from your desktop pulling over SFTP, or on the box pushing finished downloads to Google Drive — see rclone Google Drive setup.

Segmented? Not in the pget sense. The SFTP backend keeps many read requests in flight per file (--sftp-concurrency, default 64, which the docs say helps on high-latency links) and copies several files at once with --transfers. That is pipelining, not splitting one file across separate SSH sessions.

rclone config                     # new remote, type "sftp", host, user, port 22, password
rclone copy seedbox:downloads/ ~/Downloads/seedbox/ --transfers=4 --progress
rclone sync seedbox:downloads/complete/ ~/Media/incoming/ --progress

It also mounts: rclone mount seedbox:downloads ~/seedbox --vfs-cache-mode full turns the box into a folder on your desktop (without a cache mode the mount, per rclone’s docs, “can only write files sequentially”, hence the flag).

Price/platforms: free, open source; Linux, macOS, Windows.

Verdict: the tool for repeatable sync jobs and cloud hops. For a one-off big download, lftp or evoftp.

sshfs — mount the seedbox as a folder

What it is: a FUSE filesystem that mounts any SFTP server as a local directory. Two lines and your seedbox appears in Nautilus, Dolphin, VLC and everything else:

mkdir -p ~/seedbox
sshfs -p 22 USERNAME@HOSTNAME:downloads ~/seedbox

Segmented? No — a mount fetches one file at a time over one connection, fine for browsing and playing a video, wrong for copying 300 GB. The walkthrough, with the rclone alternative and why there is no WebDAV on the seedbox, is in mount your seedbox as a drive.

Verdict: best for streaming and poking around; pair it with evoftp or lftp for bulk copies.

GNOME Files, Dolphin and friends — nothing to install

What it is: your file manager’s built-in network support. In GNOME Files open Other Locations, type ssh://USERNAME@HOSTNAME/home/USERNAME/downloads into Connect to Server and click Connect. KDE’s Dolphin reaches remote filesystems through KIO from the location bar, and most other file managers accept an sftp:// address.

Segmented? No, and there is no transfer queue. Good for grabbing one file or dropping a .torrent into ~/downloads/watch.

Verdict: the zero-setup option; keep it for small jobs.

Comparison table

Our pick and why

evoftp for the desktop, lftp for the terminal. They are the only two options here that split a large file across several SSH connections, and on a seedbox that is the whole game once the round trip climbs past 100 ms. evoftp does it with no setting to find and no merge step, from a double-click on the connection file in your client area; lftp does it with one flag and scripts well. Use rclone for sync or a mount, sshfs to stream, and FileZilla when it is already open and the file is small.

FAQ

Is there a .deb or Flatpak of evoftp?

Not yet. Linux ships as one AppImage, which runs on any 64-bit distribution with FUSE 2, or without it via --appimage-extract-and-run. The guide is updated if packages arrive.

Does evoftp replace lftp on the seedbox itself?

No. evoftp runs on your Linux desktop and pulls from the box. lftp, rclone and rsync stay installed on the seedbox for server-side jobs; rsync additionally needs the OpenSSH app, because port 22 is SFTP-only with no shell.

Why do you say SFTP when I searched for an FTP client?

Because it is what you should use. FTP on port 21 exists on the seedbox, but SFTP on port 22 encrypts your password and data, and is the only protocol evoftp, sshfs and your file manager’s ssh:// support speak.

How do I upload a .torrent from Linux?

In evoftp, open downloads/watch on the right and press Ctrl+U or drag the file onto the pane; rTorrent picks it up. With lftp: put -O downloads/watch/ file.torrent. From a file manager, drag it into the browsed or mounted watch folder.

Get evoftp for Linux

Download the AppImage from neo.myseedbox.site/share/evoftp/, make it executable, and open the connection file from your client area’s “Desktop app” row. Profiles, shortcuts and troubleshooting are in the evoftp guide.